Buffs' defense taking cues from Derek McCartney's return

BOULDER – Senior Derek McCartney is looking to return from last season’s knee injury with a vengeance. The second-year team captain suffered an ACL tear against Michigan in Week 3 that cost him the rest of his junior campaign.

McCartney has played in 27 career games with 25 starts. The Westminster native has recorded 9.5 career sacks and has has been recognized for his graciousness off the field, having been selected to the 2016 AFCA Good Works Team.

Now, he is back to lead the Colorado Buffaloes’ defense to the next level, with a whole new appreciation for the game.

“Every day that I come out, I’m just a little more thankful than I used to be,” McCartney said. “Not only because it’s my senior year, but because it can get taken away from you in an instant.”

Sidelined for much of ‘The Rise’ last season, McCartney sees both sides of the experience.

“It was hard not being out there,” McCartney said. “But at the same time, it was awesome. It was so cool to see the program and my teammates, the guys I’ve worked with for the last few years, just succeed finally. That’s something that gave me a lot of joy.”

McCartney believes that the Buffs learned the value of teamwork and opportunities last year. Although, he himself may have learned that from his grandfather, former head coach Bill McCartney.

“I think the biggest thing that we learned is just playing for each other,” he said. “Whatever happens on the field is because of the players. It’s our team and we have the opportunity to be out there together and we just have to take advantage of that.”

The Buffs’ defense is confident in their current roster and refuses to lament the losses of several defensive playmakers in the offseason.

“All we know is that we have guys right here that we get to play with,” McCartney said. “I look to my left and right and I know that I have brothers on this team that I know I can trust to get out there and play. They’re going to play for me and I’m going to play for them.”

Determined to write their own legacy at CU, the Buffs are hoping to be even better defensively than they were last year.

“The biggest goal for the defense is to improve,” McCartney said. “What we did last year, we want to improve on that because it means that we’re reaching success. Something that my grandpa taught me when I was younger, he’d always ask me ‘how do you measure success’ and I was always supposed to respond ‘improvement.'”

For the defense, getting better starts with a new defensive coordinator, D.J. Eliot, who came over from Kentucky, and a new approach to technique.

“(Eliot) is a real technical coach and he’s going to teach a lot of different techniques,” he said. “I think adding that to what we’ve learned over the last few years is going to really help us out. A lot of us really have a good understanding of the scheme and adding the technique to it is going to really help make us better players.”

Though they hope to build on the accomplishments of last year’s defense, this is far from the same unit. And the Buffs are okay with that.

“It’s a fresh start,” McCartney said. “We have a whole new group of guys, a whole new look to our defense and it’s going to be fun to see how we respond this year.”

With their bout against Colorado State just around the corner, the Buffs will have their first opportunity to showcase their revamped defense. As Colorado hopes to repeat the success that they finally found last season, a cohesive defensive unit will be essential to containing the high-powered offenses on their schedule.